Shadowscopehttp://shadowscope.com
...Sleep is Just a Cheap Caffeine SubstituteSun, 04 Jan 2015 22:11:23 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1Happy New Year!http://shadowscope.com/2015/01/04/happy-new-year-3/
http://shadowscope.com/2015/01/04/happy-new-year-3/#commentsSun, 04 Jan 2015 22:11:23 +0000http://shadowscope.com/?p=889831So the holidays are always a drag for me. Lots of hours and very little time for anything else. They are over now thank goodness.

As far as site updates here or my other blogs I’ve done very little other than maintenance updates, etc. A post here and there but that’s about it. Same with the BBS. The machine it’s on hosts my home automation server as well for the time being and I regularly reboot it but that’s about it. Haven’t even updated the software or anything.

The great majority of my free time has been with my family or playing Ingress (as usual)

Anyway, if you have any problems with the BBS (no, the doors still don’t work) or one of my sites, feel free to contact me. I’ll do what I can to get it fixed up.

Thanks, and hope everyone is having a great year so far.

]]>http://shadowscope.com/2015/01/04/happy-new-year-3/feed/0Moto 360 Reviewhttp://shadowscope.com/2015/01/02/moto-360-review/
http://shadowscope.com/2015/01/02/moto-360-review/#commentsFri, 02 Jan 2015 11:03:00 +0000http://shadowscope.com/?p=889823The Moto 360 isn’t exactly new any more and there are plenty of reviews from folks that have a lot more knowledge about the equipment and industry than I do but I wanted to share my impressions after 12 days with the watch.

First off, I really like my 360 and really want to love it but there are some niggling issues that are really irritating me. Some of them I can work around, others… Not so much.

First off, when I purchased my x-mas gift I ordered it with the metal band rather than leather. While I like the look and feel of leather I am very rough on my equipment so wanted something that would last so I spent the extra $50 damned dollars it cost for the metal band. I have the black on black by the way. Anyway, I have to say that was a complete fucking waste of $50 I could have spent elsewhere. Thanks Motorola! At 5’6″ 175lbs I’m not a particularly large guy but the watchband, which is not adjustable at all, squeezes my fucking arm to death. Either my wrists are bigger than the norm or they are making the bands for little girls. I’ve solved that by purchasing a $20 metal mesh band from Amazon. Not only is it adjustable but it just feels and lays better against my arm. The band is the first issue and one that I didn’t come across when researching the Moto 360.

The second issue, and one I was completely aware of before hand, is the battery life. Smartwatches for the most part don’t have great battery life but due to the equipment that Motorola used it’s not as good as it could be. Even with the horrible battery life there are a couple of issues. If you use any of the third party animated or detailed watch faces battery drain is worse, to the point where it won’t last an entire work day for me. Not a huge deal as when I’m cooking I can’t wear a watch anyway. That’s where one of the bigger problems lies. Several times I’ve removed my watch and left it in my jacket, powering it down only to come back at 1pm to find it had powered itself back up and sitting at 10% power or less. That’s just plain horseshit. Since my Note 3 also supports wireless charging I went ahead and ordered a qi charger and will start keeping it with me. That will work but it’s definitely not a true solution.

The last big issue I’ve had is with software. I don’t know if it’s a problem with Google Hangouts or with Android Wear but since syncing up Hangouts has been crashing horribly when I receive notifications. It’ll crash 50+ (or more) times daily. I’m a very heavy hangouts user so this is my biggest annoyance. I tried turning off the hangouts notifications on my watch but that doesn’t seem to do any good. Apparently this isn’t an issued problem. Several other people I know have the same issues.

Ok, so those are the bad things. Overall, I still love the watch and there are a thousand little things I can and want to do with it. I’ll try and post some of them as I get everything set up.

]]>http://shadowscope.com/2015/01/02/moto-360-review/feed/0Google Cardboardhttp://shadowscope.com/2014/12/06/google-cardboard/
http://shadowscope.com/2014/12/06/google-cardboard/#commentsSat, 06 Dec 2014 11:10:11 +0000http://shadowscope.com/?p=889754A couple of weeks ago I gave in and ordered a Google Cardboard kit. If you aren’t familiar with it, cardboard is the VR headset that you can make out of… You guessed it, cardboard. Well, a few other things as well.

You can find directions on how to make it here as well as links to vendors who sell the $25 kit if you aren’t as handy or if you’re lazy like me.

Some pics of the kit…

The directions from the company I got it from, DoDoCase, aren’t all that clear but they do have a YouTube video up with step by step.

The finished project.

One thing I found was that it’s big enough for a regular phone, but the screen itself on my daughter’s Moto X just wasn’t really big enough. My Note 3, however, was the perfect size. Problem is its and extremely tight Fit. Unless I left the case on it was constantly adjusting the volume due to where the buttons sit. With the case on I had to bend the top flap a good bit for it to sit in there. Now that I’ve put one together I’m pretty sure I could use the miscellaneous parts and get my own cardboard except make it bigger so that the Note 3 will fit in.

I have played around with a couple of the apps you can download from the play store. Hang gliding, Google Earth tours and stuff like that. It’s pretty cool and it’s almost as much fun to watch someone else hold it up to their head and move around as they are doing stuff. Like a drunk Stevie Wonder.

]]>http://shadowscope.com/2014/11/25/no-really-i-am-getting-up/feed/0BassBoomz and BassBuds Update…http://shadowscope.com/2014/11/20/889526/
http://shadowscope.com/2014/11/20/889526/#commentsFri, 21 Nov 2014 03:29:14 +0000http://shadowscope.com/?p=889526Back in February of last year I got the opportunity to try out and review the Bassboomz Portable Bluetooth Speaker. It’s still going strong and my wife is currently using my portable speaker in her classroom. I enjoy it but she uses it on a daily basis and still loves it over a year and a half later. She’s in a fairly large classroom and it fills her room with sound.

The main reason I bring it up is because Bassbuds is having a Black Friday promotion which runs from Friday, November 28th through Monday, December 1st. If you’re interested in their line of in-ear headphones or portable speakers you should go check it out. Bassbuds has a huge color range of headphones, the largest in the world according to their web site.

BassBuds are currently one of the leading luxury high performance audio solutions around. They deliver superior digital sound with deep bass and crisp high notes, all distortion free. Each pair also includes 6 different sizes of silicone tips and 3 sizes of memory foam earbuds. The memory foam buds mold to the shape of your ear canal for comfort. That’s always been one of my issues with earbuds, I just haven’t been able to find a comfortable set. I use earbuds myself when I’m playing Ingress as I tend to use a certain PTT app with my phone. The integrated MP3 controls including play, pause, skip and voice control also allow me to control the push-to-talk app I use. Uncomfortable earbuds tend to make my temper wear thin so the memory foam is great. I also like the fact that I can get blue headphones as they correspond to the faction colors in the game.

They also have new collections since the last time I wrote about them including Bassbuds FC which represents five premier league teams (Football, Rugby to my fellow Americans) – Liverpool, West Ham, Tottenham Hotspur, Newcastle and Aston Villa. They’ll give fans a chance to wear their team’s colors while listening to quality sound.

Unique and new (to me at least) to the Bassbuds headphones is their I.C.E. tech. Basically it allows you to change out cap designs on your headphones with club insignia, Swarovski elements or just plain caps. You can also get BassBoomz portable bluetooth speakers in your team colors as well.

BassBuds and BassBoomz make a pretty cool gift for the holidays (or any other time) and they come individually packaged in a gift box. During the Black Friday Promotion BassBuds will run $85 and the BassBoomz $130.

You can also hook up with the folks from BassBuds on various social media platforms such as Facebook/bassbuds, Twitter/Bassbuds and Instagram/bassbuds as well. Go check them out and if you’ve used their products let them know what you think and share it with the rest of us.